Fifteen Reasons Why Mister Rogers was the Best Neighbor Ever lays out a pretty convincing case. For example:

Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people donâ€™t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogersâ€™ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what sheâ€™d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

I never watched the show, since I was in school, but now wish Iâ€™d known him. Link

When I lived in Pittsburgh I went to meet a friend for lunch who worked at WQED. She gave me a brief tour and we ran into Fred Rogers. She introduced me. He was very sweet and I told him that when I was a kid I thought that the trolley went to the town of "Maple Leaf" (not Make-Believe) ... I thought it was in Canada because they had a monarchy (all I knew was that they had kings & queens on their money and we had presidents) and we were a democracy.

I once mentioned Mr Roberts to one of my sons. He said he feared him. It confused me at first until I realized I was always soft spoken before disciplining my sons.

Mr Rogers was the epitome of my darker side.

NO! I almost never used corporal punishment on my children. After spanking one son with Matchbox tracks and seeing the horrible welts, I never ever physically attacked any of them again. Yeah, I'm a fucking saint.

Not to to denigrate the memory at all, but this section of the linked article reads to me like the habits of an obsessive-compulsive:Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didnâ€™t smoke, didnâ€™t drink, didnâ€™t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while Iâ€™m not sure if any of that was because heâ€™d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came â€œto see that number as a giftâ€¦ because, as he says, â€œthe number 143 means â€˜I love you.â€™ It takes one letter to say â€˜Iâ€™ and four letters to say â€˜loveâ€™ and three letters to say â€˜you.â€™ One hundred and forty-three.â€